Beyond Heaven and Earth

by Steven H. Propp

  After India, the land that seems to have had the most profound influence on world religion is China. Although there were earlier traditions, the first organized and systematic religion in China appears to be Taoism. The Tao is simply “The Way”—that is, the way of the universe. Its perhaps-legendary founder is Lao Tzu (“Master Lao”), the purported author of the Tao Te Ching (“Book of the Tao”), a book which has been translated more often than any other work of Oriental literature. The Tao Te Ching expounds this philosophy of the “Way.” Of the Tao/Way, the book begins by saying, “The way (Tao) that can be spoken of is not the constant way (Tao). The name that can be named is not the constant name.” This difficulty in expressing the nature of the Tao verbally is stated later, “Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.” (LVI) Nevertheless, the Tao can be grasped intuitively and experientially.

  His major follower was Chuang Tzu, who left a book known only by his name. This book provides memorable illustrations of the Taoist philosophy, such as a cook who never needs to sharpen his knife (since he so skillfully cuts in-between the joints of bones), as well as the famous question (after he dreamed that he was a butterfly), “I did not know whether it had formerly been Chuang Tzu dreaming I was a butterfly, or if I was now a butterfly dreaming I was Chuang Tzu.” (Bk. II) The Chinese terms yin and yang (“shaded” and “sunny”)— often represented by a circle with opposite black and white sections—are similar concepts, since they gradually blend into each other, allowing no clear “dividing point” to be drawn. Thus, “dualistic” concepts such as light/dark, male/female, and heaven/earth are viewed as being interdependent—neither one able to exist without the other.

  Taoism is clearly a highly spiritual philosophy, where the goal of life is to seek to be in harmony with the Tao. However, from the standpoint of my “Quest,” it is even less significant than Buddhism (which arguably teaches about some form of an afterlife, at least in certain of its schools), because it seemingly teaches nothing about life after death, or an eternal soul—at least, in its original, “philosophical” form.

  However, veneration for Lao Tzu increased in the years after his death, and magical elements increased in the popular practice, such that a virtual “church” was established by the 2nd century CE, whose purpose was to make cosmic forces available to ordinary people, through various priests, wizards, exorcists, and shamans. They also sought immortality of the soul through various magic rituals, as well as elixirs and ecstatic trances. (It’s difficult for a non-Chinese to develop much interest in such things, particularly when they seem to be so at odds with the teachings of the religion’s own founders.)

  It is perhaps ironic that the 6th–5th century BCE Chinese philosopher K’ung Fu-tzu (known in the West as “Confucius,” which is a Latinized version of his name created by Jesuit missionaries), who was known in his lifetime simply as Master Kung (which is what “K’ung Fu-tzu” means) should now be known as the founder of a “religion” called Confucianism. During his own lifetime, his teachings were purely dealing with social affairs, such as the role of government, the family, moral training, and such. His goal for the individual was to achieve jen, which has been translated as “humaneness,” “goodness,” “humanity,” and “human-heartedness.” He appears to have been aware of the Taoist tradition (although accounts of him meeting Lao Tzu are probably legendary), and felt that his doctrines were in a parallel and harmonious path with it, rather than viewing it as a “rival” religion. He certainly had spiritual beliefs of his own (as may politicians, artists, football players, etc.), but they were not a focus of his teaching.

  His teachings were often formulated in short, pithy sayings—such as in the Analects, collected together by his disciples after his death—as were the sayings of his chief disciple Mencius. The Analects and the Mencius are often published with the other Confucian classics, The Great Learning and the Mean, as well as with other Chinese classics such as the I Ching (or “Book of Changes”), which is a book of divination using thrown sticks, to which Confucius is thought to have written an Appendix.

  Although Confucianism is clearly not a “religion” by traditional standards, its emphasis on reverence and veneration for deceased family members, as well as great sages—complete with detailed instructions for ritual observance—can lead one to conclude that practitioners are “worshipping Confucius,” or at least their own ancestors. (In fact, at the level of the common people, this may be what they are actually doing; by the end of Imperial China, K’ung Fu-tzu was virtually being worshipped as a deity.) Consequently, Christian missionaries to China had differing opinions about whether or not Confucianism was compatible with Christianity: some felt that it was no more “worship” than was the Catholic veneration of saints, whereas others (particularly after seeing the Confucian resistance to perceiving human nature as “evil” and sinful) felt it was wholly incompatible, and required converts to abandon their traditional and much-loved family and ancestral rituals.

  The movement to Buddhism to China had a tremendous effect on Chinese religion, which correspondingly diminished the relative importance of Confucianism. The Buddhist Patriarch Bodhidharma is supposed to have brought Buddhism to China in 520 CE. Perhaps influenced by Taoism, Chinese Buddhism became known as Mahayana (or “Greater Vehicle,” the path of Buddhism that allows for more people to reach enlightenment), and led to the Theravada tradition being referred to disparagingly as Hinayana (or “Lesser Vehicle”) Buddhism. Bodhidharma is also viewed as the originator of the Ch’an tradition in China, which is widely known as Zen in the western world. (“Ch’an” is the Chinese pronunciation—and “Zen” the Japanese—of the Sanskrit word for meditation, dhy?na.)

  In the 7th century CE, a new form of Buddhism known as Tantrism (similar to the parallel movement in Hinduism) developed in China by blending Mahayana with magical folk beliefs in India. Tantric Buddhism is also known as Vajrayana (the “Indestructible” or “Diamond Vehicle”) and is an esoteric tradition, emphasizing ritual actions, mantras, and the like. Its initiation ceremonies use entry by the initiate into a mandala—a mystic circle—which is a symbolic representation of the spiritual universe. Vajrayana became the dominant form of Buddhism in Tibet (original home of the Dalai Lama), and was also transmitted to Japan, where it became the Shingon sect.

  However, another religious tendency in China is more a form of spiritual practice, rather than a formal “religion.” It is thought that the vital energy or spiritual life force of a person, called ch’i (pronounced “chee”; more often spelled Qi in English), should be flowing freely through a person, promoting health and life. A variety of techniques and exercises, known as Ch’i Kung or Qigong (“energy work,” pronounced “chee kung”), have been developed over the centuries to increase Qi in practitioners, including those practicing various martial arts. In the west, it is more often practiced as Tai Chi—a form of Qigong emphasizing movement (which is thus better as an “exercise”), rather than sitting or lying down and doing breathing exercises—typically, it is presented divorced from its more “spiritual” aspects, and simply as a form of healthful exercise (much as “Yoga for health” classes are presented in this country, without mentioning Yoga’s background in Hinduism). The Japanese version of Qigong is known as Kiko (“Ki” is ch’i in Japanese), and there have been recent offshoots of it such as Reiki (which is a system of healing techniques developed by Dr. Mikao Usui, emphasizing laying hands on the body to relieve pain, or give comfort).

  In fact, there is a bewildering variety of healing techniques that seem to have had their origin in China, beginning with Acupuncture (which means “needle piercing”), under which needles are inserted at any of 360 different points on the body, to try and rebalance Qi, and thus cure disease or relieve pain. The Japanese have a series of techniques known as Shiatsu (Japanese for “finger pressure”) that utilize the same principles as acupuncture, but use direct pressure of the fingers rather than insertion of n
eedles; in the West, the same techniques are known as Acupressure or Reflexology (the latter focuses only on the hands and feet). More recent Western techniques such as Naturopathy—with their emphasis upon natural healing, rather than drugs, etc.—are clearly related to earlier Chinese and East Indian techniques. Central to such techniques—and what makes them “religious” rather than strictly “medical”—is the emphasis upon unseen or spiritual forces such as Qi as crucial in the healing process, rather than the Western emphasis upon treating the human body like a battleground (upon which “anti-biotics” are injected, in order to “wage war” upon certain “undesirable” organisms).

  With the coming of the Communists to power in China, the Chinese government has been distinctly hostile to religion, most notoriously forcing many Tibetan Buddhists (including their political and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama) to escape to lands such as India. In the case of a very recent variant of Buddhist Qigong developed by Li Hongzhi called Falun Gong (“Law Wheel” and “energy practice”) or Falun Dafa (“Great Way”), the persecution of this “evil cult” by the Chinese government is considerable.

  Religion in Japan begins with Shinto, the “Way of the gods” (gods are called Kami), which has been strongly nationalistic in the past (and is known as “State Shinto”). Veneration or worship is centered on spirits known as kamis, who may be dead and exalted beings, or personifications of the natural world such as the earth and the sky.

  More relevant to my Quest is so-called “Pure Land” Buddhism, which stresses faith and devotion to Amida Buddha as a means to rebirth in an eternal paradise known as the Pure Land. In his book Oriental Mythology, religious scholar Joseph Campbell described the ultimate goal of the teachings of Honen (the Pure Land school’s founder in Japan) thusly: “the goal was not Buddhahood or enlightenment here on earth, but an afterlife in beatitude, through which, in due course, nirvana would be achieved.” This is one of the sects of Buddhism that will definitely bear serious looking-into.

  Judaism would ordinarily, in terms of size alone (between 12-16 million, their numbers having been reducing considerably by Hitler’s extermination of as many as 6 million during the Second World War), be thought of as a “minor” religion or sect—comparable to, say, the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses. However, in the Western world, Judaism has exerted an influence that is absolutely disproportionate to its size. Furthermore, as the precursor to Christianity (Jesus was a Jew, as were his earliest followers, including Peter, Paul, and John), it has a unique and dynamic relationship with Christianity.

  The story of the Jewish people is told in the Bible (from the Greek word for “book”), written primarily in the Hebrew language (which, although still used in prayers, was clearly in decline until it was revived by the Zionist pioneers in the 19th century; in 1948 it was declared the official language of the state of Israel). However, this collection of writings (known by Christians as the “Old Testament”) is known by Jews as the TNK or (by insertion of vowels) Tanakh, based on its three parts: Torah (the Law; the first five books, known as the “Books of Moses”), Nevi’im (the Prophets, such as Joshua, Isaiah, etc.), and the Kethuvim (“writings,” such as the Psalms, Daniel, etc.). The first translation of the Bible from Hebrew was its translation in about 250 BCE into Greek, which became known as the Septuagint (the Latin word for “seventy,” the number of scholars who made the translation). This is the version of the Bible that many early Christians knew and used. This translation included works known as the Apocrypha (from Greek and Latin words for “secret” and “obscure”), that were not included in the Hebrew Bible, and to this day are not considered part of the Bible by Jews (although still of great interest).

  Christians and Jews share the Tanakh/Old Testament history of Adam and Eve; the Flood of Noah (whose son Shem’s name gives us the word “Semitic” for his supposed descendants), the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (who was called “Israel” in Genesis 32:28-29, a name which later was applied to his descendants), and the rest. God, who had promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations (Gen 17:4), had his people named after him (Abraham was known as the “the Hebrew” in Gen 14:13), and are also called the “Chosen People” (from Genesis 15). However, these descendants were ultimately enslaved in Egypt, until they were delivered by Moses (who had been a prince in Egypt, but was supposedly born a Hebrew and adopted by an Egyptian princess), who led their “exodus” from Egypt (described in the biblical book of this name). While wandering in the desert for 40 years, the Hebrews were given the Law (such as the Ten Commandments) by God, establishing a covenant—i.e., mutually binding agreement between two parties—with him. They distinguished themselves from the surrounding nations (“Gentiles” in the Latin, or Goyim in Hebrew) by their strict observance of their law and customs—particularly observance of the Sabbath (day of complete rest, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday), and kosher dietary laws (e.g., not eating pork; not mixing milk and meat).

  After the death of Moses, the Hebrews/Israel were ruled by his successor Joshua, who was told by God (Joshua 1) to conquer the land of Canaan (ancient Phonecia), which was the “Promised Land” that God told Moses about (Ex 6:4). After this conquest, they divided Canaan among their twelve tribes (Joshua 13:115:12), these tribes having been derived from the eleven sons of Jacob. The term “Palestine” (virtually absent from the Bible; it was called “Canaan” in Hebrew) originally referred to the land of the Philistines, whom the Jews encountered after the conquest of Canaan. The Hebrews had no king or leader after Joshua’s death, and were initially led by charismatic leaders known as “Judges” (such as Samson). Ultimately, Israel was ruled by a king named Saul (1 Samuel 8-10), who was replaced by the famous king David (2 Samuel 2), whose son and successor Solomon (1 Kings 1) built the first Jewish Temple (1 Kings 6). However, after his death, his son and successor Rehoboam faced a revolt led by one of Solomon’s officials named Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:26-14:20), and the land was divided into the ten tribes in the northern land (known as Israel; also known as Samaria, after its capital) ruled by Jeroboam, and the two tribes in the southern land (known as Judah, named after the tribe) ruled by Rehoboam. A series of other kings followed, and ultimately the northern kingdom was taken captive by Assyria (2 Kings 17 and elsewhere) in about 700 BCE, who removed them in captivity from the land (leading to the myth that these “Ten Lost Tribes” retained their identity and emigrated to other lands; whereas they really just intermarried and lost their distinct “Jewish” identity).

  Jews nowadays trace their history only from the descendants of the southern kingdom of Judah. Gentiles began to know the Hebrews as the “Jews” (see 2 Kings 16:6, and Esther 3:4), meaning the inhabitants of Judah, or Judeans. Judah too eventually fell in 586 BCE to Babylon, whose king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Jewish Temple (2 Kings 25), and deported the Jews to Babylon (the so-called “Babylonian captivity”). In exile, Jews mostly spoke Aramaic, a Semitic language related to Hebrew. The “Ark of the Covenant” (the box containing the tablets with the Ten Commandments; Ex 25:16) was lost during this time (leading to “Raiders of the Lost Ark” movies, etc.). Various prophetic figures (Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, etc.) arose at various times during the history of Israel, usually calling the people to repent and return to God. Ultimately, after Persia defeated Babylonia, some Jews were allowed to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple (see the book of Ezra), which became known as the “Second Temple.” (This Temple was temporarily defiled in 165 BCE by the Syrian-Greeks, but was retaken by the Jewish Maccabees; the Jewish festival of Hanukah celebrates this event.) Later the Greeks conquered the Persians, then the Romans conquered the Greeks, so the Jews eventually ended up under Roman rule. The Romans eventually fought a war with the Jews, and destroyed the rebuilt Temple (which had been greatly enlarged by the Judean king Herod the Great, causing it to be known as “Herod’s Temple”) in 70 CE, completely destroying it; its only remnant is the Western Wall (the so-called “Wailing Wall”), a portion of t
he wall that surrounded the Temple itself. Destruction of the Temple caused a tremendous upheaval in the religious life of the Jewish people—who scattered throughout the Mediterranean basin—and rabbinic teachings (particularly the rival schools of rabbis Hillel, and the stricter Shammai) and practice of the Law took the place of the Temple with its animal sacrifices.

  The Torah is central to the Jewish religion; a hand-copied Torah scroll is kept lovingly in every Synagogue and Temple. It has been, and continues to be, studied exhaustively by the Jewish people, who have determined for example that there are precisely 5,845 verses in the Torah, as well as 613 commandments (mitzvoh in Hebrew) in the Torah—365 “negative” prohibitions (e.g., “do not commit adultery”), and 248 “positive” ones (e.g., “honor your father and mother”). The division of the Tanakh into “verses” was done by the Jews in ancient times, but they utilize the division into Chapters that was made by Medieval Christians.

  The discussions of the Tanakh and Jewish law made by rabbis (Hebrew for “master” or “teacher”) were eventually written down and collected beginning in about 200 CE, and are known as the Talmud (Hebrew for “teaching”), of which there is a Babylonian Talmud (the longer, and more authoritative) and a Jerusalem Talmud. The Babylonian Talmud has six sections: Agriculture; Festivals; Marriage; Damages; Sacrifices; Purifications. The components of the Talmud are the Mishnah (discussions and decisions about Jewish law, such as the Torah) and the Gemara (commentaries on the Mishnah), as well as Midrash (explanatory commentaries on the Tanakh). The Midrash has two parts: the Halacha (deductions from the traditional written law) and the Haggada (exposition and interpretations of the narrative parts of the Tanakh). The Talmud and Midrash are considered the “oral” Torah, in contrast to the “written” Torah. Other important collections of Jewish writings are the Kabbalah (or Cabala)— the mystical writings—an important part of which is the 13th-century work known as the Sefer Ha-Zohar (“The Book of Splendor”) or Zohar, which contains the more esoteric and magical teachings.